The past few weeks...

Michelle--- from Kinder... my prayer girl : )

I have had an amazing 5 weeks so far in Honduras. Since my last update the Kinder students have gotten better at school in general. They are starting to understand the rules and that they have to listen. The other two classes are going pretty well reviewing and learning new vocabulary.
I talked about this in my last e-mail- but wanted to say it again (mainly for myself). One of the most difficult students the first week of school was a little girl named Michelle. She still misbehaves in class (though she is already a lot better in just three weeks of school- i.e. she doesn’t run away anymore), but she is changing. The Honduran assistant prays with the students before lunch and then Amanda and I walk them to the cafeteria. And the past two days I have sat down next to Michelle and she has said “Profa oraciones en ingles” and so I pray in English and she repeats it. It just gives me one of the best feelings ever.
I still get to love on students on the bus and give about 100 hugs a day. So, though teaching them English is hard, it is easy to love on them even not knowing their language.

I visited San Pedro last weekend. It was good to get out of Sigua for a few hours. Zoe, Amanda, and I caught a nice big coach bus for really cheap to the city. However, once we got on the bus we realized we had to stand the whole time because there were no seats. So- we were in the aisle for a long time trying to keep our balance. It was comical. A lot of things here seem funny just because they are so different from America. For example, Friday on the bus ride home from school we get on to realize the woman in the front seat has a duck in a bag. I’m not sure why or how, but she did. Its head was the only thing out of the bag. But—I like the strangeness. It makes me smile.
Anyway- in San Pedro we taxied to the mall—I ate KFC and bought nail polish. We taxied back to the bus station to get on a small shuttle without air-conditioning, but at least we got to sit down! So we spent four hours on two busses, but it was worth it for the KFC.
The past week or so I’ve also visited the Bilingual school of Sigua to observe another ESL teacher, went to a festival downtown celebrating schools, and ate a lot of starch… haha. That is one thing I’m getting use to is the lunch and food in general… tortillas…beans..rice..spaghetti. Everyone always asks if I’ve eaten anything unique. I haven’t really- baleadas (thin tortilla, beans, cheese thing) are delicious and I’ve never had one in America, but nothing is gross or weird.
We have a local dining place we like to go to. It is called Belly’s Grill. It’s a nice and cheap sit down restaurant good for fellowship. We also have a water guy (a pulperia that we always go to for our water refills), a laundry lady, a baleada lady, a new banana lady, and I think that is all of our connections for now. But, we are establishing connections (well sort of—with the language barrier it is hard) and this place is becoming our home! We even had a guy chop our front gate area that was all overgrown.
Which that in itself is a story. He was standing at our gate when we were walking back from the pulperia. It worried us at first, but then realized that he wanted to chop our yard. He wanted to do it for 200 limps ($10). So we haggled him down to 150 L (which I surprising like to haggle...) and then he needed a lema (a sharpener for his machete I think) and of course we didn’t have one, but we couldn’t understand why he didn’t. So he had to go buy one. Then we realized he wanted to do our whole yard and we didn’t want him in our gated area. We just needed him to do the outside of the gate area. So, Zoe had to do all of this talking with him and then get the price even lower because the space is really small. I wish I knew more Spanish because we have to rely on Zoe a lot for circumstances like this one (and they are obviously frequent). Bowen and I are thinking about trying to find a Spanish tutor.
Sad news: Our banana tree died… it uprooted itself from the ground. I don’t know if it was a storm of if the large bundles of bananas weighed it down.
Zoe and I just finished our first music video ever to “Shake It” by Metro Station. It was fabulous. It is 2 am… but I just have so much energy. I have not seen this hour since I’ve been in Honduras.
Keep praying for the school, the students, the teachers (especially patience) and Ariel’s sister. Thank you all for everything! I can honestly feel everyone’s prayer. The transition to life down here has been so smooth because of all of the prayer warriors at home. God is good- All the time!


Write me:
Zoe Tolson
Attn: Amanda Bruin
Apartido Postal 110
Siguatepeque, Comayagua
Honduras, CA

Part Retriever/ Part Beaver

Picture: Destino Teachers Mallori (4th, 5th, and music), Zoe (2nd and 3rd), Bowen, and me.

Tonight was fantastic! Bowen and I had plans to go to San Pedro for the big Honduras soccer game. However, God had other plans (here lately I have been seeing his other plans more frequently…. it is a blessing). Instead, we ended up going to the church picnic where not only did we have good food and good fellowship, but we met two amazing warm, loving, Godly women that really touched me.
Karen and Shannon are from Missouri and were visiting Sigua to do a seminar for women on personality types. Not only after meeting us did they invest time into understanding why we were in Honduras, but they also ran through the seminar just for us. I learned that I am part Golden Retriever part Beaver. This discussion really meant a lot to me because it helped me learn more about myself, but also about my roommates, and even the students in my classes. The ladies also prayed over our home when they brought us home. It means a lot to meet sisters in Christ and have them immediately whole-heartedly invest in your life.
I am so glad God did not want me to go the soccer game. I would have never learned this stuff standing in a stadium.
Ahh yes… and school has begun. We taught for four days. The first day was crazy! My youngest students were very ape-like. They would run out of the classroom, the lunch room, any where we tried to keep them contained. Some cried the whole time… I don’t know if they missed their parents or if the crazy Gringas were just scary because they were speaking another language. However, as the week went on it got a little better. My two older classes are precious (there are rowdy children… but it is all worth while). And… I enjoy the bus rides where I sit next to students and get to love on them. I might not have a positive impact on all 90 of my students… but I know God will touch some of their lives through me and that is what keeps me going.
I am so thankful to be here. And I thank God for everyone that is praying for me back home and supporting me financially. You all are truly awesome!

Love you all!

Check out Psalm 91